Matthew Bournes Early Adventures

Many of us doing the Ballet project spotted that at the lighthouse theatre in Poole Matthew Bournes Early Adventures was going to show on the 15th May and most went.  I was a celebratory piece with performances from 3 of his earliest works.

Spitfire; An Advertisment Divertissement

• Matthew Bournes first hit in 1988
• Masculine portrayal.
• Male underwear models.

This was an entertaining piece using dance to portray advertising poses.  It was success at the time and 24 years later it still is.

The Infernal Gallop: A French Dance With English Subtitles.

• 1989
• set in 1930s and 40s in France.
• Tried to portray France in that time.
• Gay scenes showed the repression of the time, in present day its not a shock to see it but I'd imagine in the late 80s it may have caused some issues

Town and Country: Lie Back and Think of England.

• Very comedic performance.
• Explored characters and identities from iconic eras.
• Used scenes from Brief Encounter.
• 1992
• Used music not from ballet or operas.
• Iconic Music.
• Repression.  Two men wanting to be together but not being able to.

This was by far my favourite piece of the night, it really showed the diversity of dance well in representing animals, moods and had a brilliant scene choreographered around a bath which unique and funny.

After discussing these performances with our tutor he suggested that we need to do background research into the characters of the Ballet and why they are how they are.  The two repressed gentlemen to us seemed romantic and sweet that they wanted to be together and in our generation we don't see it as two men and doesn't faze us.  However when the play was set it would have been seen as wrong hence why is shouldn't be seen as a romantic scene but a sad scene with two people who can't be together.  We need to also look at the time that it was released as i said earlier this was in the late 80s where people weren't as open with same sex relationships.  Where as a man and a man dancing together isn't an issue now it would have been picked up on at the time and I'd imagine some people were very critical of what Matthew Bourne did.

This is why i find Matthew Bourne's work so good as he doesn't worry about pushing boundaries.  He never oversteps the mark and he said himself right before hes does something stops it.

It was a very good night to go as Matthew Bourne himself was there for a question and answer at the end which was very informative.  It was nice to listen to his views and why he has done certain things.  What goes through his head when he makes these things.  What i took from this was from one of his questions, he is not creating ballet but creating dance.  I completely agree with him and i feel that it why i prefer some of his work as it has a story that is easy to follow, its theatrical and like with streetcar you forget there are no words.